Thursday, May 7, 2015

A constitution is a set of rules that govern the behavior of a state. The word “ought” expresses a duty or obligation but is not the same as a rule. The US Constitution does not have one occurrence of the word “ought” in it.

But the word “ought” appears six times in the Rhode Island Constitution, Article 1. eg;

“the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among its citizens”

“Every person ought to obtain right and justice freely”.

“punishments ought to be proportioned to the offense”.

Our constitution should follow the US Constitution and state the rules clearly and positively with no ambiguity.

“the burdens of the state shall be fairly distributed among its citizens”